A Microstructural Spacetime Model Based on Density-Driven Internal Contraction

This paper presents a model of spacetime as a dynamic, internally contractive lattice. Spacetime is composed of discrete volumetric cells whose volume contracts as the local effective energy density rises, and neighboring cells are linked by a connectivity Λ_ij, read as the phase coherence between cells rather than an energy per link. The model, termed Density-Driven Internal Contraction (DDIC), reproduces general relativity in the weak-field limit; its long-range scalar is a Brans–Dicke-type dilaton whose coupling lies within solar-system and pulsar bounds. An exact identity relates the coarse-grained connectivity tensor to matter's stress-energy. Read as a second gravitational source it would conflict with solar-system tests; it is instead a restatement of matter's own stress-energy in lattice variables, so the lattice carries no bond energy. A unimodular constraint makes the cosmological constant an integration constant of the field equations. The lattice's high-density phase transition is bounded below by neutron-star structure at about 3 × 10¹⁹ kg/m³; up to about 10²¹ kg/m³ it makes neutron stars measurably more compact than in general relativity, a near-term test for NICER mass–radius and gravitational-wave tidal measurements. The discrete structure yields a quadratic Lorentz-violation coefficient with a distinctive anisotropic directional pattern, a signature no continuum theory produces, while the scalar gravitational-wave polarization is bounded from above by the dilaton coupling. A system's ratio to its own Jeans length gives a qualitative dark-matter suppression mechanism for galactic rotation curves, and qualitative accounts of high-redshift galaxy formation observed by JWST, star-formation efficiency, and direct-collapse black hole seeding. We relate DDIC to prior emergent-spacetime and elastic-vacuum models (Sakharov, 1968; Volovik, 2003), identifying its specific points of departure.